TV Viewers Can't Watch Just 1 Screen

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The average amount of time Americans spend watching TV
hasn't changed much over the past four years. We spend
about five hours on average each day in front of the TV, and 80
percent of that is live television. However, one screen is no
longer enough.

Today, close to 40 percent of Americans use their tablets or
smartphones while watching TV, according to Nielsen's latest
cross-platform report.

But it's not just the younger generation that likes to multitask
— viewers between the ages of 25 and 34, as well as viewers ages
55 to 64, are most likely to use a tablet while watching
TV. Smartphones
are the device of choice among 18- to 24 year-olds.

Nielsen also looked at what people are doing on their second
screens — large and small. Email was the most popular activity
for young and old, men and women alike. More than half of every
user group in Nielsen's study checked their email
while watching TV. Nearly one-third of viewers checked
sports scores, but men did this twice as frequently as women.

Smartphone users tended to do more shopping and social
networking, while tablet users were more likely to look up
information related to a show they were watching.

Used with a TV, tablets and smartphones are proving to be new,
novel and potentially necessary utilities, Nielsen said. But at
what cost? A study conducted in 2008 by Lloyds TSB insurance
found that attention spans had dropped from 12 minutes to just 5
over the past decade, which was attributed to an increase in
gadget use. Are multiple devices filling the gaps left by our
wandering minds?